Is Quentin Tarantino a better writer than he is a director, or vice versa? Given his immense talent in both fields, it’s a tough question that will never yield a consistent answer from fans – but one key argument in favor of the former is his brilliant ear for dialogue. All of his movies feature sharp conversation-centric scenes full of wit and his special brand of pop culture philosophy, and there is no better example than his hit Pulp Fiction –one of the best films of the 1990s. More than 30 years after its theatrical release, the film is as cool as ever, and there is never a bad time to reflect on and celebrate its best quotes.
“I love you, Pumpkin.” “I love you, Honey Bunny.” “All right, everybody be cool, this is a robbery!”
There is something unquestionably special about Bonnie & Clyde-esque relationships, and Quentin Tarantino plays with that affection right from the outset in Pulp Fiction. In one moment, Ringo (Tim Roth) and Yolanda (Amanda Plummer) are lovers sharing an intimate, affectionate moment, and in the next, they are waving guns around and threatening murder.
“They call it a Royale with cheese.”
Of all the wonderful, idle conversation featured in Quentin Tarantino movies, I think this is the pinnacle: just two guys in a car talking about how the use of the metric system abroad has an impact on fast food menus.
“Yeah, but, you are aware that there's an invention called television, and on this invention they show shows, right?”
Regardless of context, it will forever sound pretentious when a person declares that they don’t have a television, and it’s for that reason that I have a particular affinity toward this line from Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules Winnfield. John Travolta’s Vincent Vega announces his lack of TV-watching habits without any real provocation, and I like that his partner mocks him for it.
“Have you ever given a foot massage?”
I love how a simple line of dialogue can tell us so much about the dynamic between Vincent and Jules. You can tell that the former knows that this question is going to provoke the latter, and it hilariously leads to him requesting that his partner rub his feet a bit.
“Come on, let's get into character.”
It’s the meta-awareness of this line that makes it so cool. In the minutes prior to this line, Jules and Vincent seem like affable guys talking about simple things like French fry condiments and foot rubs, but they need their game faces on for their confrontation with Brett (Frank Whaley) and his friends, and this quote marks an amazing tone transition in the film.
“I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? I didn't mean to do that. Please, continue, you were saying something about best intentions. What's the matter? Oh, you were finished! Well, allow me to retort. What does Marsellus Wallace look like?”
Once Jules gets into Brett’s apartment, he knows what business he has to be done, but he’s like a cat with its prey: he wants to play a bit. He smiles and makes chit-chat… but this line is where the dynamic shifts. There’s no more hamburger talk; Flock Of Seagulls is dead on the couch, and the man with a recently fired pistol wants to know why somebody would try and steal from his boss.
“‘What’ ain't no country I've ever heard of. They speak English in What?”
If I were in Brett’s shoes with Jules Winnfield holding a gun to my head, I too would probably be challenged to fully wrap my head around him asking me what country I’m from, but that in no way undercuts my appreciation for the latter’s angry, clever articulation here.
“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children...”
If one were to rank the best cinematic monologues of all time, there is no question that Jules’ recitation of Ezekiel 25:17 (albeit a heavily altered version) would deserve to be either near the top or at the top. This is fact and cannot be challenged.
“Pride only hurts; it never helps.”
This is quite a thing to say to a person! It’s basically a more elegant way of saying, “You should flush all of your self-respect down the toilet.” It’s quite a statement from Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), but I have to wonder if it ends up specifically backfiring on him a bit because of how it clashes with the family legacy of Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis).
“You can get a steak here, daddy-o. Don't be a... [draws a square in the air]”
I drew a line in the sand earlier between the director side of Quentin Tarantino and the writer side, but here is an example of the perfect merger. Not only does Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) come across as extra slick, but the dotted-lined shape that is formed on-screen following her finger is a genius touch (and I don’t even care that it’s a rectangle and not a square).
“Don’t you hate that?” “What?” “Uncomfortable silences”
I love Pulp Fiction for many, many reasons, but one of them is that it provides the perfect thing to say if you ever are on a date/at a get-together and collide with an endless void in a conversation.
“I do believe Marsellus Wallace, my husband, your boss, told you to take me out and do whatever I wanted. Now I want to dance, I want to win. I want that trophy, so dance good.”
One of the best musical sequences in a non-musical starts with a demand. Mia knows that she has Vincent under her thumb because of the fear that her husband inspires, and it’s super fun to see her wield that power so that the couple can win a dance contest.
“You gotta stab her once, but it's gotta be hard enough to break through her breastplate into her heart, and then once you do that, you press down on the plunger.” “What happens after that?” “I'm kinda curious about that myself...”
Everything about the accidental overdose scene in Pulp Fiction is chaos, and this line wonderfully illustrates that Lance (Eric Stoltz) and Vincent are as in the dark about how the sequence is going to conclude as we are. Anything could happen, and this is a perfect table setter for that mood.
“If you're all right, then say something.” “Something.”
What makes this moment particularly perfect is the fact that Mia could be responding to the question, but it also sounds like she may be starting to say, “Something… is sticking out of my chest.”
“Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go home and have a heart attack.”
While not all of us have had a stressful night quite on the level of Vincent Vega’s night out with Mia Wallace, I think we can all remember feeling like this after an evening caught up in a conflict hurricane.
“Three tomatoes are walking down the street- a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him... and says, ‘Catch up.’”
It’s a dumb joke for sure – but it’s also the ideal level of dumb joke to make Mia’s sendoff to Vincent absolutely perfect.
“Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.”
I already highlighted the Ezekiel 25:17 speech as one of the greatest monologues of all time, but Pulp Fiction is a rare film that has two scenes that qualify for that superlative. Christopher Walken makes the story of the watch iconic with his signature line delivery, but the story itself is both dramatic and funny, and it provides us necessary insight into the mind of Butch Coolidge.
“It's unfortunate what we find pleasing to the touch and pleasing to the eye is seldom the same.”
Quentin Tarantino movies don’t typically get highlighted for their beautiful sentiments, but this line has a loveliness to it in its removal of the physical in the understanding of pleasure.
“Zed? It's Maynard. Yeah, spider just caught a couple of flies.”
Pulp Fiction can’t be categorized as a horror movie, but I’d say this specific line of dialogue is as terrifying as any quote from the long history of the cinematic genre. It’s not clear what Maynard and Zed have planned for the two unconscious men, but you know it’s going to be bad.
“Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.”
There aren’t many ride-off-into-the-sunset lines that can top this one. Everyone can be happy that Zed is dead, and Butch and his girlfriend are free to head off into the world, collect their gambling winnings, and live happily ever after.
“That's all you had to say!”
It’s nice when you can give a friend/colleague assurances that ease them of any and all stresses, and that’s perfectly expressed in Jules Winnfield’s reaction to learning that the legendary Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel) – one of the best Tarantino side characters – is being dispatched to help resolve his very messy problem.
“That's thirty minutes away. I'll be there in ten.”
Could Winston Wolf simply tell Marsellus Wallace that it will take 10 minutes to get to Jules and Vincent? Sure. But would it be as outrageously cool and tell us about the character’s propensity for driving fast? Nope!
“If I'm curt with you it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk fast and I need you guys to act fast if you wanna get out of this.”
This is the line that arguably explains Jules’ enthusiasm hearing that Winston Wolf was being dispatched to his aide. The guy is the dictionary definition of methodical, and this sums up his whole personality during a crisis.
“Every time my fingers touch brain, I'm Superfly T.N.T.; I'm The Guns of the Navarone!”
I love that there are moments in Quentin Tarantino movies where he can’t help but slide in different pop culture references, and this is a perfect example. He’s a guy who can take the titles of two totally unrelated films – Superfly T.N.T. and The Guns of the Navarone – and put them into the mouth of a character to express absolute rage. Genius.
“You guys look like... What do they look like, Jimmie?” “Dorks. They look like a couple of dorks.”
This is an amazing exchange just because of the tremendous contrast it presents. The main characters in Pulp Fiction are Rat Pack-level cool for the majority of the film’s runtime, but with a simple post-spray-down costume change, Jules and Vincent instantly become a couple of dorks.
“In your future... I see a cab ride. Move out of the sticks, fellas.”
I think this is a funny line of dialogue on paper, but what really sells it is Winston Wolf fully committing to the psychic bit, complete with bringing his hands up to pretend that he is actually having a vision.
“Just because you are a character doesn't mean that you have character.”
Winston Wolf has jokes! During a crisis, he is all business, but when the work is done and he feels everything is safe, the guy is a wisecracker.
“Ah, so by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filthy animal. Is that true?”
This is another perfect example of the wonderful naturalism in Quentin Tarantino’s dialogue. If one were to hear this debate point raised while eavesdropping in a diner, one wouldn’t bat an eye.
“You know, walk the earth, meet people, get into adventures – like Caine from Kung Fu.”
As sad as I am that Quentin Tarantino never moved forward with his idea for a Vega Brothers movie, I’m perhaps even more upset that he didn’t ever attempt to tell the story of Jules Winnfield roaming the planet and having adventures.
“I hate to shatter your ego, but this is not the first time I've had a gun pointed at me.”
I like to think that Jules experiencing a miracle just prior to facing off with Ringo and Yolanda is at least part of why he is unperturbed having a gun waved in his face, but I’m pretty sure that he would be this relaxed on any random Tuesday getting caught up in a robbery.
“Nobody's gonna hurt anybody. We're gonna be like three little Fonzies here. And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda what's Fonzie like?”
He’s cool – just like everything about Pulp Fiction.
“The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.”
Again, I ask: why is it that we never got to see the continuing adventures of Jules Winnfield trying to reclaim his soul on a globetrotting journey? Selfish as it may sound, it feels like Tarantino robbed us of something special by never pursuing the idea.
Enjoy this trip through the awesomeness that is Pulp Fiction? Should you care to now rewatch the film, you can pick up a physical media copy from pretty much any retailer (it’s available on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray), and the movie is available to rent or purchase digitally from all major retailers. Provided that you don’t abhor commercial interruptions, you can also enjoy as one of the best titles currently available to watch for free on Pluto TV.
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